We Love a Mystery

I think this must be true of all photographers. Just think about it for a moment. You go looking for a new camera body or lens and most of the time, you really don’t know what you bought until you’re shooting with it. We set our alarm to get up long before sunrise and standing in place not knowing if what we’ve planned for months will unfold the way we want. Then there is the learning process, the evolution of our photography. It starts with just learning what a f/stop and shutter speed, a mystery that confounds photographers for seemingly a long time. And the list goes on and on, mysteries we go out with our camera in search of answers. So that brings up one very important question in my mind, “Do we ever solve the mystery?”

When you’re in Death Valley, you might make the long trek down the long dirt road to visit the Race Track. This is where large rocks have appeared seemingly from nowhere and then without any assistance, skid across the playas surface creating trails. Just how does that all happen? Now there are theories, working hypothesizes how these rocks skid across the dessert. But do we really want to know the answer? And as photographers, do we want to tell that answer to our viewer or as we operate, leave them with a mystery? I’ve been beatin around for over 30yrs chasing something with my camera. Along the way, I’ve come across a lot of mysteries which to this day, the answer still eludes me. This is why I tell folks I don’t know all the answers and, I don’t want to. That mystery of the unknown is what compels me to go out everyday with a camera. And if I’m really lucky, I convey that mystery in my photographs. And for that reason, I hope I never do find out all the answers because I think life would then be very boring!